Dota 2

I figure there's enough discussion for a topic since from what I understand a pretty fair amount of keys are out now. Overall impressions are pretty good considering it's a beta; the voice acting/design/little bit of music that I've heard is great as expected. Compared to HoN (which I was playing on and off for awhile), Dota2's other main upside atm is the better hero pool; I missed Viper! I'm definitely missing some of HoN's features though, like how both teams started with a courier, secret shop items are also available in base, all the mod options, etc.

there are also some nuisances like lack of a concede/surrender feature (seriously baffling as LoL, HoN, and even TDA had it, and the inability to surrender really drags some games out), no visible mana bars on enemies, inability to map puck's orb and warp to the same button, and a queue issue that prevented some games from starting, which will hopefully get fixed with time.

After countless of hours of dota, im so excited for this. Both HoN and LoL didnt quite do it for me, played them quite a bit during beta (LoL after aswell) but it just didnt click for me. This on the other hand might end up being responsible for lots of wasted life hours. I agree that there needs to be a surrender option though, as not many people (aside of the russian leaverkids, to just call em like that), want to get too many abandons (I saddly have one due to a silly network error :( ), as that gets you a bad spot in matchmaking queues.

It does really pain me to end up in teams where everyone just stupidly picks carries and when one silly russian kid feeds another silly russian kid (or atleast eastern european kid) one ragequits and one goes insanely aggro, ragequits when he gets killed and the entire games falls together like a tower of cards. Even worse is when people say stuff like "OH, SO JUGGERNAUT IS JUST AN EXACT COPY OF SWIFTBLADE! THAT IS OOO LAME, THEY STOLE ALL!!!!". Everytime i die a little inside ;_;...

On the other hand, whenever you get a game with people who know what theyre doing, there are very few things that beat this in terms of gameplay imo, it gooood.

I got my key last week at playdota's daily draw as well, and hmm, just don't get too eager for it, too many clueless players within. When I saw a Bloodseeker with a Dagon I almost left the game, lol. You might try to give some advice to them, but most of the time they won't listen. Go for it if you have friends to make a full party, otherwise it'll be quite frustrating. Nevertheless, it's a freaking beautiful game with an excellent work on the voices, really amusing hearing Lina shouting cold bitch after killing Crystal Maiden and stuff like that.

also for those waiting an invite from Valve, honestly, give up, it's easier to win a key on playdota, the number of keys is increasing recently, iirc it's 180 keys per day now.

For those who still do not have a key, here are some links that'll help you get through the wait:

StreamDota2 - As the name of the website states, it lists all the streams that are live. It has a mixture of professional players, and intermediate players.

JoinDOTA - A site ran by Tobi Wan himself. He streams tournaments live quite frequently, and he uploads them to the site (in case you missed it). It also has news concerning the competitive scene, and a nice feature that shows when competitive players are streaming.

Dota Commentaries has new dota/dota 2 replay casts almost every day. In fact, The Premier League is being streamed on that site for the next few weeks. If anyone wants to see some pro teams duke it out in some recent dota 2 action, I recommend checking it out.

I generally don't like the commentators on Dota Commentaries. Although they're much more informed about the game mechanics (unlike JoinDOTA's Tobi Wan), Tobi is great at calling games and making it exciting.

I have a key, and have racked up around 30ish games - over the course of which I think I can safely say I've improved heaps. Only ever played the original dota too, never tried LoL or HoN. The only hero still unreleased that I'm keen to play is Bradwarden. So far the rest of the hero pool is pretty solid. I cant imagine how all the people who qq at the sight of AM will react once someone like Lycan comes out though...
Anyway, I've received two keys so far but gave them all to friends. If I get another you can be sure that they'll all be going to you guys.

Been playing Invoker a couple times lately, which I never got to do in DotA since he was re-introduced after I stopped playing. He's really fun though I often get the feeling I'm not tapping his full potential (also he's still insta-locked half the time). Pity there aren't many mold-breaking heroes like him.

Ya, Invoker is an intriguing hero in that he's unbalanced in a different way than most heroes are. He has 10 different spells, so you'd think that there would be several viable ways to play him (in the beginning anyways). However, there is only really one way and that is a Quas/Wex build. I remember when he was re-released and the build revolved around Meteor, but now it's all about the Tornado/EMP/Cold Snap.

But ya, I wish his other skills were better (so that different early builds could work), but then he'd be even more broken. Invoker gets really tricky late game when you have access to all his skills, as it's his job to use 'em all in teamfights.

DotA is VASTLY different compared to 4 years ago. Nowadays, you see teams having a tri-lane with a carry hero 90% of the time, and 2 solo heroes. The most picked/banned heroes would consist of Broodmother, Night Stalker, Invoker, Prophet, and others. It's alot more gank oriented now with the addition of smoke of deceit, which makes you invisible until an enemy hero spots you within a certain range (so even with wards, you aren't safe). There's much more that has changed, I suggest you read up on the history of DotA (when it's updated next because that's probably the more relevant part).

Also, if you guys haven't seen it, you should watch this game between Na'Vi and EG (from the Defense):

Ya, Invoker is an intriguing hero in that he's unbalanced in a different way than most heroes are. He has 10 different spells, so you'd think that there would be several viable ways to play him (in the beginning anyways). However, there is only really one way and that is a Quas/Wex build. I remember when he was re-released and the build revolved around Meteor, but now it's all about the Tornado/EMP/Cold Snap.

But ya, I wish his other skills were better (so that different early builds could work), but then he'd be even more broken. Invoker gets really tricky late game when you have access to all his skills, as it's his job to use 'em all in teamfights.

Click to expand...

oh yeah also this, they nerfed his alacrity so you can't even do awesome cold snap alacrity builds lol. they were more pubstompy anyway.